I went to Ikea. That was a touch overwhelming.

May 28, 2007, 4:54 PM

First of all, hello from College Perk coffeehouse! I went to Ikea in College Park today to go bed-shopping. Talk about an overwhelming experience. First of all, the place is bigger than a Wal-Mart Supercenter. And it’s two floors. Then I got over there, and the parking lot was full. I mean full, like park-in-the-back-of-the-lot full.

I went in, and went up the escalator to their showroom. I saw the map coming in, so I kind of knew where I was going, or at least I thought. I got in, and got a bit disoriented. Lots of partitions made it less than straightforward about getting to the back where the beds were. I did find it, though I had no idea what was going on. I ultimately found a salesperson, to whom I admitted I was overwhelmed, and he was quite helpful and helped sort me out. I ultimately did figure out what was going on, though.

Bed shopping is interesting, though. To properly shop for a bed, one must try it out. I’m sure I looked amusing testing mattresses. The way you test them out is to get on them in a sleeping-type position and feel it. It reminds me of a scene from Today’s Special‘s “Shoes” episode. Jodie walks past a row of shoes, and comments on each pair:

I went from mattress to mattress to mattress. Some were too thin. Some were too soft. Some were too hard. One was too bouncy. It was so springy that I imagined myself rolling right out of bed with that, in which case I could just save my money and sleep on the floor.

I ultimately found a mattress I liked, but I had to find it on the beds that were fully assembled as a set. So the salesperson set up a list for me, and it was time for Part 2 – getting the parts together. And I again felt quite overwhelmed. From the showroom, you go into this giant warehouse with all the furniture in boxes. I was just like, I don’t think so! with that. And add to that the fact that delivery is $79 on top of everything else when I had to fish it out of the big warehouse myself, and I knew it wouldn’t fit in the Sable. And I also wasn’t too keen about dragging large, heavy pieces of furniture up three flights of stairs at my place by myself. Not my idea of fun.

So I ultimately left Ikea empty-handed, for the most part. I did get a list of what I wanted, which I’m going to get on Ikea.com later on – probably after I finish writing here. Then I’m getting it delivered from their online store to my apartment. And then once I get it put together, it means I won’t have to sleep on the futon couch in the living room anymore – I’ll actually be able to sleep in the bedroom.